In my eyes, Kenuri has always been the product of so much western homoerotism *or straight up homosexuality(GTAV) and the yumihisu residue on Isayama's brain while writing chapter 69. What if Ymir and Historia were the LAMEST old dudes your two eyes will ever grace upon? A question no one but the author himself was brave enough to ask.
Kenny himself has a very similar personality to Ymir:
Abrasive and cynical in compensation for a debilitating insecurity, I am effectively unlovable. Anything else is a miracle.
Not to mention their homosexualy-charged speeches by the end of the first part of season 3
But as much as Ymir claims to be selfish, at the end of the day she proves to be quite the opposite. Kenny, on the other hand, simply knows he is a selfish piece of shit. It is how things are.
Ontologically, he's more similar to Historia in the selfishness and pettiness and pitifulness. While I can see the headcanon that Kenny's reluctant sympathy towards Historia comes from her reminding him of Uri or even Levi in some way, for me the reason is that unbeknownst to him, he sees himself in that puny pitiful thing. They're both pitiful.
Their flashbacks sequence are also structured in a quaintly similar way. Dead gay titan lover. Stranged family member. Dead gay titan lover. Stranged family member. Dead....
As far as each relationship goes they follow a similar trope.
"Woaw.. I'm such a piece of shit...but you're sooo nice to me...o///o"
But Ymir understands why, not only that, she understands exactly what brings her and Historia together. They're substantially similar, they've faced similar struggles and they take upon personas and identities that aren't true to themselves.
Kenny doesn't understand. And neither does Uri. Precisely because they are so different (or at least believed to be so), they are a hundred worlds apart. But this is ironically exactly what brings them together in the first place, wonderment. They can't, on the terms they've so far settled for themselves, they can't, but they want to, they want to understand one another more than anything.
This becomes apparent more visually if you take into account just how Touchy and affectionate Ymir is with Historia. They are always physically close, joined at the hip, very outwardly loving. Whilst Kenny is like a neoplatonic Petrarchan Renaissance man, strictly standing ten fucking feet away from the love of his life only to whine like a bitch and never ever get over it once the lovely guy dies.
Ymir's final act of love is one of distance, she leaves Historia so she can have a chance at a better life inside the walls. While Kenny's is one of closure, he finally realizes that at the end of the day Uri was also a man like any other, and surely wasn't so different from himself and maybe putting people on a pedestal, especially your friend is a really stupid thing to do.
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